The Boat That Rocked

A great tip when out on location is to rent shared houses or apartments instead of putting crew in single hotel rooms. This works especially well if you have an advanced crew preparing an area or staying behind for strike. This will benefit the environment because you are able to get more people into an area, you run less heating/cooling and fewer lights. You might even find that this improves morale as your team can bond and will work together more efficiently. A great example of the social and financial benefits of this comes from Fiona Baldwin on The Boat That Rocked;

“I was working with the Marine department and we were to be based in Weymouth for 8 weeks. Rather than have the Production Office book the accommodation on our behalf, I asked early on in prep if we could receive a living allowance instead so that we could be responsible for all Marine Dept accommodation bookings. Production were fine with this and probably relieved as it meant one fewer department to worry about and it suited us as we knew the Marine department probably wouldn’t come up high on the priority list with regards to accommodation - win/win! I looked into holiday houses/apartments for all of the guys to share which overall saved a lot of money. It suited the guys to share, as having all been ex-navy and ex-marine they were used to/keen to live with their friends and colleagues.

In short, over a period of 8 weeks by having 2-4 crew members share a 2-4 bedroom property it worked out much cheaper than a B&B or hotel and meant each person pocketed approx £125 per week. I was in charge of all monies until the end of the shoot, so by the time we wrapped, depending on the length of time everyone had stayed in Weymouth, I was able to give £1000 to each person who was there for 8 weeks, £750 for those who stayed 6 weeks, £500 for those who stayed 4 weeks and so on. It was a great bonus for everyone and we managed to secure nice holiday accommodation for all crew members throughout our stay.”